Right now, a lot of the conversation around hit Apple products is focused on the iPhone 12 series, and, to a slightly lesser extent, the first generation of Apple Silicon Macs, featuring Apple's M1 chips.
But the iPad is also doing exceptionally well for Apple right now, as a report from global technology market analysis firm Canalys makes clear.
Big iPad Growth
According to Canalys data, as shared by Patently Apple, Apple's line of tablets grew 40% in annual growth in the fourth calendar quarter of 2020. In all, Apple shipped a reported 19.2 million iPads in the three-month period. During the same quarter last year, Apple shipped an estimated 13.7 million iPads.
That's the best iPad performance for Apple since the fourth quarter of 2014. To put that in perspective, this was back during the days of the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, and one year before Apple introduced its top-of-the-line iPad Pro. At the time, iPads were still running iOS 8, and Apple itself was valued in the high $600 billion market cap range. (By comparison, it's now north of $2.2 trillion.)
A statement by Canalys analyst Ishan Dutt read as follows:
"The growth momentum enjoyed by tablets shows just how important easy access to computing power has become in the current time. Their versatility across, not just different form factors and price points, but also connectivity options, make them an ideal device across a variety of use-cases, from simple slates for e-learning and content consumption all the way to high-performance detachables for productivity users who are adapting to spending a larger proportion of time at home."
After Apple, the second most successful tablet manufacturer during the quarter was Samsung, which shipped 9.9 million tablets during the three-month period. This was one percentage point above Apple in terms of growth, at 41% annual growth.
Amazon was in third place, with 6.5 million tablets for the quarter, followed by Lenovo's 5.6 million, and Huawei 3.5 million. Other, miscellaneous brands shipped 8.1 million tablets during Q4. In all, 52.8 million tablets were shipped during the quarter. This was a healthy 54% annual growth for the tablet market.
Tablets most likely enjoyed a popularity boost during the quarter as a result of the continued COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that people are using tablets and other devices more than ever for working and learning from home.
What It Means for Market Share
Interestingly, despite being the clear lead---with almost twice the number of tablet shipments of its nearest competitor---Apple slightly lost market share during the quarter. This, of course, doesn't mean that it lost users, but rather that Apple now makes up a slightly smaller share (36% vs. last year's 40%) of the overall worldwide tablet market.
The current line of iPads includes the 2020 iPad Pro in 11- and 12.9-inch screen sizes, 2019 iPad mini, 2020 iPad, and 2020 iPad Air.
Image Credit: Dose Media/Unsplash CC
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